DDAL Jasper DMS Season 9 & Descent into Avernus Adventure League

[jasper]

On Sundays I am doing Descent. On Fridays I am doing the Season 9 modules. I need to find my coin token bag my wife gave few years ago for the soul coins. Also need to hit the dollar store again and make my Lego Infernal War Machines. Poison is used during the book page 258 of DMG.

 

[jasper]

Descent Into Avernus Session 1

Chapter 1

Copping a Copper for a Copper Piece.

PC killed 1 Monsters Killed 18 Villains Captured 0 Villains Escaped 0

I had a Very strong group of six or five. Ava Ranger 2. Dexro Ranger 3 Sword coast Tiefling, John C Cleric 1 Warlock2. Joshua Paladin 4. Pamela Druid 4. Nekron wizard 3.

Gain a level. 10 downtime days. 80 GP.

Note. I am level locking each chapter for the moment. Chapter 1 is level 1 to 5. You have the option not to progress or level out and bring in new pc. I will also need your flaws and Gawds in my notes.

The group has been ordered by Don Meepo a mob boss in the Realms to go to Baldur’s Gate and discover why Elturel has disappear. Why? Because only the good Twinkies come from Elturel and his supply is getting low. Elturel is city of goodness, light, high culture. Even the peasants are only downtrodden only once a month. Baldur’s Gate. Hmm. You know that space harbor on Tan Ton Ween call Moss Ease in the movie Star Wars. That is were Gaters go for a peaceful weekend. Jobby the Hut would not make a week in THE GATE.

When the group arrives at Baldur’s Gate, they are to meet their contact Captain Zodge. A small crowd of peasants are blocking the gate and throwing rubbish. The city watch called the Flaming Fist have close the gate.

Issio, “Can you give us some help with these bloody peasants”. Pamela fires an arrow from her bow killing a rioter and then slips away into the outer city. (Player move tables to help the other table.)

Dexro, “Bloody the peasants. Sure. “ He charges in. Crowd, “HEY HE KILLED KENNY! THAT BEEP!” The crowd surround Dexro and start kicking him to dead. The rest of group help Dexro kill off the peasants.

Issio, “Good job. Now why are you here?”

Joshua, “Don Meepo send us. We are looking for a human with a left eyepatch a captain Zork. I think he is in charge. “

Issio, “Oh, Captain Zodge. Follow me.”

The group are taken up a block to the watch post. Captain Zodge is middle age human with a flaming fist eye patch, long silky black hair.

Captain Zodge briefs the group. Elturel has disappeared. Taken either by Q, the Borg, to Hell, to New Jersey, we don’t know where just a hole in the ground is left. The Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard was visiting the city is presumed MISSING. AND ONLY MISSING. The knight of Elturgard called Hellriders are blaming Baldur’s Gate. Elturgard is the kingdom you are in. The gawds Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul have return. Their followers are committing murder, which is our job. You have a license to kill.

Dexro interrupts the briefing to get his license to kill in writing.

Captain Zodge continues the briefing. You have a license to kill any of the dead three followers. Bane is lord of darkness. Bhaal Lord of Murder. Myrkul Lord of Bones. Don’t worry about collateral damage. What we call criminals who yet to commit a crime being proactive punished. Go to the Elfsong tavern. Meet with Tarina a member of the Thieves Guild. She has information. He gives each member a copper badge embossed with the flaming fist symbol.

(I had fun with copper badge idea. And the group was having fun with the license to kill. ) On the way to the tavern the group pass three kids.

Nat. “How can you tell Gaters from others.”

Jenks. “Gaters know there are three type of people. Survivor’s. Loot Drops. Or body.”

Squiddly, “What the difference between a Loot Drop and a body?”

Nat, “With a body you can only loot it once and sell it to the necromancers. With proper beatings, you can make a loot drop drop loot every tenday.”

Nekron, “That my clue. Sorry I was running late. I was taking some ax spray to a body. “

Dexro, “You mean you were putting on axe spray to your body.”

Nekron “Read what I said.”

The group arrives at the tavern. Half the tavern drinkers are trying to decide if they are a loot drop or body. Joshua ignites his flame tongue. Oh survivors. Joseph tries to find if the tavern sell IMP beer. (again we were having fun staying in character but doing call backs to other adventures.) They meet Tarina who demands the group wait to eight PM to meet with some her associates before she would give up the information. John C thinks he knows her. (NAT 20 plus his bonus gets him the information.) She is known also as the Dread Pirate Rhonda Thunderbell. But this being THE GATE, the city would probably throw her a party than lock her up. (The background information on here was interesting but I set the DC at 22 because no reason exists for the pcs to know her.)

Joshua and Nekron decide to use their new badges to shake NPCS down. (What. Ok. You want to go look for a fight. Ok. Give me a minute. ) The group. (What only Joshua, and Nekron do the shake down). The two coppers try to shake down two vets. Losing initiative Nekron is dropped with three swings.

Vet number two, “Survivor, loot drop, or body. Your choice?”

Joshua, “Survivor!” As he slays the first vet.

Vet number two, “Ok it a loot drop each. Take your friend and go.”

Joshua, “No. I am survivor. “

Vet number two, “Your friend is a body!” Three swings and two hits later. Nekron is dead. Joshua kills vet number two. ( The player running Nekron when home to sleep. He can lose his faction item for a raise. Or owe the dm his first magic item. Player lasted 20 minutes after he arrived late. )

Eight PM rolls around. The party is scattered around the tavern. Dead-Eye and seven of his crew walk in.

Tarina, “Sorry. I forgot. If you want the information, you must do my light work for me. Hey Clueless kill those eight before they kill me.” (YES. Getting the party to do evil work. HAHAHAA.)

The group battles the pirate crew while Tarina dives over the bar.

Tarina, “There is a bathhouse with a walled garden called the Porchester Spa. Followers are seen going and coming from the spa. A secret door to the dungeons are somewhere in the spa. Have fun boys.” She dashes out the back door.

DM. Notes. If the group reaches a reasonable stop point early, I am calling the game. I do like the layout of the book as I scanned the book when I first took notes, but I did forget the opening. If you want to run a Tiefling with wings you need to use the sword’s coast book. Renown items. At tier 1 if you are in a faction you can choose a ring or faction item. At tier 2 you can get of +1 weapon, +1 shied, +1 rod of pact keeper, or +1 wand of war mage.

 

[jasper]

DDAL09-01 Escape from Elturgard
Escape from the railroad
PC killed 0 Monsters Killed 20 Villains Captured 1 Villains Escaped 0
Story Award Cooler Heads prevail. You just beat up the villain.
Magic Items 2 potions of healing, scroll of protection from energy, amulet of proof against detection and location.
Levels. If you started above level 1 go to level 5 Gain 80 gp and 10 downtime days per level gain. NOT 750 gp I was handing out hourly. If you started at level 1 go to level 5 or 4 as you want. Gain 80 gp per level. 10 down time days.
DM ruling on Amulet of Proof against detection and location. One player said RAW you could not cast divination spells on yourself. I am going with RAI only hostile divination spells are block.
DM reminder. Steep stairs are difficult terrain, regular stairs are not. DM will tell you if they are steep.
DM is sorry he ran the module badly. This module is gathering the locals and their stuff and high tailed to Baldur’s Gate. And concludes with a murder mystery. Next time I run this I will make each suspect more memorial and make you write the names down. I will also do a flow chart and static investigation roll to find the clues.
I had a very strong group in each part. This module allows you to level after each hour. So, I am not mentioning levels. Ava Ranger. Jon Wizard (returning player). Tigra Barbarian. Maxwell sorcerer (who I kept calling him barbarian due to the player running one normally.) Roland ranger. Rauf of the Sand Druid.
The group are a local guard unit for Elturgard Guards and Gardening Club. They are returning for eastern demark guarding a load of tulips and other merch. Just before dawn in the west they heard and see a loud explosion. Some think they smell brimstone. Others occasionally are flicking falling ashes off their uniforms. As the merch caravan rolls into the final rest stop before Elturgard they are met by Darling Dara their employer. Darling Dara declares the city is gone. Not believing her, the climb up to the watch tower and look west. The city is gone, as if it was flung off into space, (Or the Borg scooped it up. Only two players got that.) After telling them they are not on harasser pay (Yea extra 2 cp a day.); she gives them three locations to search, recover locals and loot (impound for the good of the city. Wellum’s Smithy for Wellum and his weapons. Ghorin the mill owner and his grain, oats, and mill stones. The Fabled Fawn for Segren and his wife Vasha and any customers. And remember the beer, and cooking supplies. They choose to got to the inn. (Note next time I going to run the encounters in sequence to build up some tension and let some NPCs have face time with the pcs.) They arrive at the inn. The barn is on fire or slightly on fire, well some of the roof was smoking. A customer is tossed from the second story window with a broom stick shove through its heart. A bed knob is toss out too. Seeing a Lemure grinning at the window, the group charges the door. (Note I should have Vasha scream about the barn is on fire, and she needs help too. I allowed the group to start about 55 feet away from the doors.) The group split. Some taking the north door, some taking the south down. One or two slowly just walking forward. Entering the tavern nine plus Lemures are descending down the three stairways. Two groups on the north stairs and one on the south. The group make short work of Lemures in the south part of the tavern. Jon rescues Vasha Hall and finds out Segren is in the barn. (OK I was having trouble getting the group to recognize the barn was on fire. My fault.) Jon starts to cut the other customer Hastrine Leaftender and orders the group to go rescue the innkeeper. Tigra and Roland start finishing off the northern group. The rest of group run toward the barn. (Yes, even a double or triple move is not going to get the pc to barn in one round. HAAAA.) Rauf of the Sand kicks open the door and starts chocking as smoke pours out. He rushes in.
Meanwhile the Tabaxi Tigra Barbarian finishes off the last Lemure and dashes toward the barn. (Tabby Cat move very very fast.) Just as Rauf and Tigra are pulling the unconscious Segren outside, a beam crashes to the ground. It would have crushed Segren. Rauf heals Segren but he does not recover conscious. (Note this never explained why. Grr.)
The group take the people to caravan and a small squad is sent back to recover the beer and cooking equipment. The group decides to head toward the smithy. As they arrive, they heard the racking of a double barrel shotgun. Um Racking of a double crossbow. Um.
Wellum, “Halt. The next bandit who steps forward will get the working end of my shot…. hand crossbow. “As Roland and Tigra are calming down Wellum and his apprentice Gordrick; a half-elf scout name Vollis Foote runs up. She wants to help. Wellum tells the group of the bandit raid. This left the smithy with only 3 buck and quarter staves. But both rangers are able to follow the trial left behind by the raiders. Not wanting npcs, um to make sure the smith and his apprentice survive, they assign Vollis to stay behind to guard them. (yes, that is the ticket.) The group follow the foot prints to an old temple of Torm who is god of duty and loyalty. Jon sends his owl into the temple. The entrance way has been looted but the bronze doors to the main temple are close. The secret door on the right wasn’t close. (Passive perception of the owl was unknown so I used Jon’s). Tigra opens the secret door and the chanting she just heard comes to a sudden stop. The group gets into a combat single file stack and the fight begins. Tigra was able to sneak down to the underground cavern. She sees two cult fanatics, a spined devil and a few bandits. The Spined Devil has grown out of a dead human’s head.
Roland, ‘It always a dead human.” A few rounds of combat later it is over. (Ok each encounter levels with the group APL. I should have remembered the cults were cult fanatics. OPPS.) The group find loot, the weapons, some jewelry. The group return to Dara with the three locals and weapons.
On to the miller and the grain. (OH. A fetch quest with an imbedded fetch quest.) Ippon the miller and his pal Pal are loading a wagon with grain. Pal thinks the group should see if they can get Stephen King (was the poet Billiam) to come back with the group. Stephen King was writer up the way but did not want to leave his shack. (Someone had mention King and we got side track talking about his works.) King is on his small porch smoking an evil five leafed weed and writing in his journal. Once the group convinces King he really needs to leave the area, he decides the tale of the missing city of Elturel would make a great novel. Would ….
(oh hell no. A fetch quest in fetch quest in a fetch quest. After some discussion, and to move the game along. I just called out the ability or skill check for next encounters. If they failed, they took damage. Etc.)
Would the group fetch some stuff for ink, paper, and some Pegasus feathers? Most of the group got the feathers but two them nearly got hoof in mouth disease. A hoof in their mouth. But Tigra and Jon were able to calm down the horse.
The group with the miller his pal Pal, King with his special items, and grain are moved safety to the caravan. The group retires for the night. In the morning they wake up to King’s body being found.
(Okay this where I should made each NPC a person. And had some interaction during the night. The players were having trouble getting the clues. And I was having trouble making the npcs memorable. In frustration I just gave them the villain and ended the game.)

 

[jasper]

Descent Into Avernus Session 2
Chapter 1
Days 2-3
Massaging the numbers. Or being ratted out.
PC killed 1 Monsters Killed 45 Villains Captured 3 Villains Escaped 4
Magic Items Bag of beans with 7 beans DMG 154, potion of fire breath * 2, potions of healing * 4, alchemist fire * 3

Gain a level if you want. If Tier 1 10 downtime days and 80 gp. If Tier 2 20 downtime days and 240 gp. Remember Chapter 1 is for levels 1-5 and if you level out you can not play in the chapter. Rauf of the Sands spend 90 gp if you want the curse removed.

I had a very strong group of six. Ava Ranger 5. Burt Bard 5. Tigra Barbarian 4. Rauf of the Sand 4. Geeraunt Wizard Transmuter 5. Todstool Fighter 4. Oops make that a strong group of 5. Burt dropped out after the opening encounter. Which made the final battle very deadly. OOPS. HEY players remind me to strike out people off the sign in sheet when they leave.

Last session they got information the cults of the Dead Three Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul were operating out the Sweeny Todd spa They wait till morning to check it out. The Sweeny is a beautifully decorate courtyard of nymph water fountains. They enter the bath house and are given a choice of bath or massage. Sweeny and Pirelle nearly get into a fight over who going to give the sand druid Rauf a sand massage. Sweeny walks away mumbling but takes Geeraunt as a customer. (Ok I had fun role playing out the massage and shoving pcs toe into their ears. ) Rauf would have enjoyed his massage but for the occasional waft of stagnant water come from under the secret door on the north. The group decides to wait to midnight before raiding the place.

Rauf turns into a scorpion and walks under the courtyard door and turns back into his humanoid form. They break into the pool room Todstool runs across the room and into the pool to aim his short bow at the kneecap of the Necromite of Myrkul.

Bill Necromite, “ You are a little short to playing with sharp objects and not tall enough to play in pool. And you better not pee in it.”

Todstool, “Surrender or I am taking out the kneecap.”

Ted Necromite (the other guard everyone was ignoring), “Excellent we capture five loot drops for the Death Three. That 2 for each of the gawds. “

Bill Necromite, “We ain’t surrendering shorty.”

A few rounds later Ted is dead, and the group has 3 prisoners who confess to belonging to cult of Myrkul. And please go through the secret door to your doom.

(Note to other DMs. Remember the flooded sections are 2 feet deep. I had the gnome Todstool treat as difficult terrain.)

The group wanders around the far west end of Dead Three Dungeon. They rescue Klim the Possible from the fists of Bane and Iron Consul. ( I do love how these villains can synergize. But must remember which group are being fought. I occasionally flipped abilities during the game.) Then the other dungeon residents were ratted out by Rizzo the Rat. The druid made friends with a rat in one of the rooms. (For the rest of the session, Rizzo gave the group a heads up of if the room was wet or dry. If the room had people in the room. Also I was adjusting the difficultly up due the very strong group.)

The group go gas from one group which nearly exploded but did not since produce flame is not really flame. The spirits of evil smack one of the pcs upside his goody good head before the group recognize it was a spiritual hammer trap and left. About 9 zombies were destroyed. Then they came to a secret door. Rizzo did not know what was behind it. So the evil coppers decide to crash the party.

(Trigger the boss fight due to time and location.)

Ok I dropped all the pcs at least once except for Geeraunt who was playing the far game. And my dice love hitting Tigra. She soaked up over five Nat 20s. Some of the villains have multiattack with special abilities. One could turn invisible first then attack. One had a gaze attack then daggers. Him I played as the Old Spice guy. “Look at me. Don’t I have beautiful muscles. Stare at them. Are you stunned by my good looks? Good. I will stabby stab you now.” Also I had forgot Burt had left the table, so I was running this as very strong encounter than a strong. Sorry about that my players. The group was able to stabilize with one hit point left and let Geeraunt lead the way.

The group looted the eastern part of the cult house while four of the cultists in other parts of the dungeon decided to leave. The group did try to destroy some of the Dead Three statues. Tigra did kneel before Bane before Todstool destroy the statue. Todstool destroyed the Bhaal statue. Rauf of the Sands destroyed the Myrkul statue and was cursed. No benefits of magical healing. (Rauf needs to drop 90 gp between sessions to remove. Why I want to charge him 1,000 gp I don’t know.)

What the party does not know? An imp has been spying on the group and reporting back to Thurstwell Vanthampur.

 

[jasper]

DDAL09-02 Stopped at the Gate
A Blue’s Clues Mystery
PC killed 0 Monsters Killed 26 Villains Captured 2 Villains Escaped 0
Magic Item Eyes of the Eagle
Days 7-9
Gain a level. 80 GP. 10 Downtime days
First module I quit in disgust.
I had an average group of five, two were new to the shop but not AL. Ben Monk 1. Roland Ranger 4. Alderai Sorcerer 1. Ginger Druid 3. Vasco Monk 1.
Most of the problems with module is lead by the nose to next scene. Important information is buried in wall of text. And some paragraphs give conflicting information in the same paragraph. See page 9 left column What they know.
Some of this could be help by bolding text.

 

[jasper]

Descent Into Avernus Session 3

Chapter 1

Days 4

House Break Heart Breakers

PC killed 1 Monsters Killed 52 Villains Captured 3 Villains Escaped 4

Magic Items Torpor * 4 DC 15 Con Incapacitated 4d6 hours, Midnight Tears DC 17 31 poison damage DMG 258, +1 mace DIA 39.

IF under level 5 Gain a level. 80 GP. 10 Downtime days. If Level 5 240 GP and 20 downtime days.

NOTE. There are still 12 pages left in Chapter 1 so next time we play we still will be in Chapter 1 which level 1 -5. Sorry for the misinformation.

I had a weak group of five. Dannad Fighter 1. Havnald Cleric 1. Vox Ranger 1. Burt Baard 5. Logalla Fighter 1.

Sorry, due off board problems I was having trouble dming. Also The group was supposed to be around level 3.

The group proceeds to Low Lantern to get information on Vanthampur family. They meet Amrik Vanthampur who thinks they here to assassin him. He introduces himself as Amrik Vladimir. Burt wanting to impress him challenges Grimboot an cross-eyed bouncer and duergar to a shooting contest. First of three seagulls. Grimboot’s crossbow versus Burt’s boomerangs.(UM WELL Ok. That is off script. Think fast dm.)

The contest. First of three seagulls. On deck. Can not shoot beyond 60 feet nor closer than 20 feet. Skadric Salakar a fellow Flaming Fist on suspension will diving in and fetch the missed boomerangs. Skadric needs to pay off his tab. Grimboot uses his enlarge ability to cheat. Burt uses levitation to even out the match. (Note Burt is first time for me drop in player. I had fun with the contest.)

Amrik blows smoke and narcs out his ma Thalamra Vanthampur. The group goes to the villa and bluff the guards into letting into the house. Fendrick Gray the butler opens the door, and lets the visitors in. He escorts them pass a nice wax statue of Duke Thalamra. Slobberchops the family pet appears real. Fendrick leaves the group in parlor and tells it be ten minutes or so as he goes get the Ms. Duke.

So the group proceeds to explore and loot the ground floor. Entering the basement, the discover a small problem. Two Spined devils. The group makes short work of the devils. Little Timmy Burt’s ward helped. The group starts the clearing of the basement. Most rooms are currently empty. (Why? I don’t know! Third base.)

They hear chanting behind a door. They open the door to see a temple to Zariel. 4 Cultists. And a Barbed Devil. (Did I say Barbed. Let down grade to bearded devil. YEAH 20 initiative) . The devil does not hear the group behind the door. They burst in and kill a cultists right off. Logalla and Burt stay at the door. Dannad flanks right to a new cultist. Havnald, Vox, and Little Timmy charge forward to take down their second cultists. The devil moves and hits Havnald with both attacks dropping the pc. (Pause while I asked the DMS at the table about the Infernal wound ability on a zeroed person. My decision. If you take damage from missing the save; it counts as a death save fail.) Little Timmy kicks the devil in the ankle. Vox finishes off the cultist. Burt and Logalla do range attacks to the devil while Dannad fights his cultist.

The devil smiles. And hits Timmy with a Nat 20 and another hit. He then picks up the bleeding body of Little Timmy. Opens Little Timmy’s mouth and pulls out a SOUL COIN with Little Timmy’s name on it. The devil swallows the soul coin.

Burt does a healing word on Havnald. Logalla attacks the devil. Dannad misses his cultist. Burt heals Little Timmy. And the rest focus fire on the devil killing it. They finish off the devil and wipe out the other two cultists. End of Session.

SOUL COINS. If you die during the session your pc name will go on a soul coin. These will appear later in the book.

 

[jasper]

Game Problems. I have not had a steady table, so information between sessions is being lost. Also due to personal problems on Sunday, I should just called off the session.
In game problems. I think Little Timmy is a familiar for the Bard but as Timmy only hits on a 20 I was not worrying about how he affected game play.

 

[jasper]

DDAl09-03 Session 3
Red Copper in the Morning
Day 9
Gain a Level
Magic Items Gloves of Thievery and Scroll protection from Fiends.
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 46 Villains Captured 3 Villains Escaped 0
I had a weak group for the first bonus objective and then a strong group for the rest of the session. Johnalena Monk 1. Surahana Paladin 4. Botticelli Monk 4. Charlie Warlock 4. Started at 6:20 PM end at 8:50. I even threw in a small combat to delay the game but I was back before 9:10.
I suggest you run this a dirty cop show. I also created my own box text beforehand.
The new recruits are order to wait outside Flame Daryn Flaburn’s door. She is chewing out Manip Benn Hithlin for being behind on filing his paperwork after dismissing him, she invites the recruits in to be yelled at. After they close the door, they are told their real missions. One follow Hithlin to see if he is leaking information to the Zariel death cult. And report by noon to the murder scene. The body has not been identified yet but it is not the Sands Korek. Do not engage, beat, punch, or kill fellow fists who are backing Hithlin. They wear black handkerchiefs. She dismisses the group.
The group hang around the doughnuts and coffee until Hithlin leaves. The follow him. (Group stealth check.) Twice they nearly lose him. Once when a beer wagon cuts them off and the second when his bully boys try to block them. (I would just roll a d 6 on complications table). They see him enter the Narwhal Tavern and pass a note to a patron and then leaves by the back door. (Yeah high passive perceptions). Botticelli who is a drunken master first bumps into Lovet Utich and steals a look at the message. Remembering they need real living proof, (oops the dm clarified they need hard proof). He engages Lovet into a drinking contest. (Hey when 5 cops invite you to drink you drink. The Inquiries part of bonus A does not work because the adventurers are COPS.) After losing the first round badly, Charlie swaps out Botticelli mug, with Charlie’s mug which will not let you get drunk. STINKY CHEATING COPPERS. After getting Lovet quietly drunk, they arrest him and send him to the precinct.
They arrive at the Korek’s house before Manip Foremantle. And have words with the two black handkerchief fists at the door. Just as they about to throw down, the Manip comes around the corner and locks up both groups. After a quick tongue lashing, he dismisses the guards. They enter the house. Foremantle does mention he will not see anything if any loot drops into their pocket.
(Note I had drawn out all the maps before hand while I was waiting for the players to arrive. I also label the house ones with the same numbers on the map. This sped up part of game.)
The group divide up the house while the Manip wait in the murder room. Roland finds a chunk of wood in the sitting room. Botticelli and Johnalena loot the kitchen discovering some spice bottles contain religious material components. Charlie loots some books about Zariel from the study. Roland also finds some glass prisms in the storage room floor which would light something underneath the house. Going upstairs Botticelli searches the bedroom and misses the loot. The group does find out the piece wood got to a trap door underneath the ground floor stair. The group splits. Roland and Surahana will check out the murder scene and the rest will check out the trap door.
And since they were new on the force the house exploded killing them all. OK not that type of cop show.
The murder scene does reveal a secret safe which gives up gloves of thievery. Roland being greedy rechecks the bedroom and discovers the scroll of protection from fiends. (see the dm can be nice and hint you recheck your work.)
The cops surprise two cultists guard part of the sewer tunnels underneath the house. After necro dropping them, they return to crime scene. Manip orders them into the tunnels to see where they are going.
The party splits again. Well Okay. Roland stayed in front of the party enough where he would not lose his devil sight. No one really cared what the welcome map really said. Roland would explore ahead and then come back. Explore ahead and then come back. Explore ahead and then come back. (Psst Ok Roland I know what you trying to do.)
Note. Since I was running the long version, I made changes. Drop the top three rooms from the map on page 22. Fold those room into the necessary rooms below. Some the room descriptions in Bonus Objective B don’t match with what is on the map.
The group finds the sleeping cells of cult. The smell of burn flesh is now about a six out ten. They find some books belong to Sands Korek. Entering the upper corridor, the smell of burn flesh is now an eight. They bypass the north hallway and head west finding the prepping chamber. In this chamber they find a journal with names signed in blood. The last two entries are Sands Korek and Eryn Xeph. Eryn is still fresh but some how did not smear because of …. Yea Special Secret Cult Chemicals Botticelli. (Player was poking fun at me as I had the book closed at first.)
The decide to still explore west. Not noticing the blood trails since the dm forgot to put them on the map. Roland opens the door to cells and kennels. To see one hell hound and let see four not five pcs um yes FIVE cultists. (Imagine that a one for one match up. It’s that fair.) The party charges in to the cells taking out the hell hound and a cultist before they can react. (Grumble Whine I hate low initiative.) After making short work the cultists, imp, and hell hound they search for more clues. They do hear chanting from the ritual chamber. They come up with a great plan. SPLIT the party. Johnalena and Surahana will take the east door to the chamber. Charlie and Roland will take the west door. Botticelli will say go to the east team who will give a 60 count then rush. He then run to the west party and they charge in. (Hey they don’t have radios.) But first what are they forgetting.
OH. Roland will QUIETLY use his thief’s tools and open the locks on both doors. QUIETLY. (I roll a die against his open locks roll to see if the cultists noticed. 20 and 19 which I made the bad guys initiative.)
They hear chanting. Roland kicks open the west door just to see the Spined Devil pull out the dagger from new cult recruit Eryn. A coin appears from her body which the spined devil eats. The party attacks and the devil and cultists fight back. Suddenly the body of Eryn turns into a spined devil. The party takes out both devils before Johnalena is struck down.
Breaking combat with his three foes the paladin dashes across the chamber and slides into Johnalena. Lay on Hands to restore her to full.
Bob the Unnamed Cultist, “We dying for the glory for Zariel. Necro drop the Loot Drop!” All the cultists break contact and charge toward Johnalena. They raise their swords and.
Miss. Hit. Miss. Hit. Hit. Zeroing out Johnalena again. The group kills one. Kills the second one. Kills the third one. Death aka Mr. Happy appears only to Johnalena as she misses her first death save. The cultists raise their swords. MISS. AND DEATH FOR JOHNALENA. A SOUL COIN appears above her body and is sucked into the altar. They kill off the remaining two cultists. Take the evidence to Flame Daryn Flaburn. Charlie pays to raise Johnalena.
DM Note. I will be using poker chips for soul coins. If any one dies during season 9 I am going to put the pc name on the chip. The chips will be in a bag. If you draw a named chip out the bag it has an extra charge.

 

[jasper]

DDAl09-04 Session
Day of the Devil
Flaming Fist Fight Fight Fight
Day 10
Gain a Level
Magic Items Periapt of Health, Soul Coin aka Little Timmy
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 74 Villains Captured 8 Villains Escaped 0
I had a weak group of four. Agent Bob Wizard 1. Maxwell Sorcerer 4. Kayn Nyak Rogue 2. Kayn is a new player both to D&D and adventure League. Shade Bard 2.
The group awoke to good news. Segren Hall the innkeeper who was kicked in the head during the first adventure has awoken from his coma. (Still no reason given for while healing magic did not work.) And BAD NEWS. Duke Dillard Porty one the remaining council members is going to give a speech about the refugees and murders. He going on stage at Nine AM, and the group has crowd control. Also, they have to play nice with High Watch which is mucky mucky upper-class police force.
9 AM no Duke.
9:30 AM no Duke and crowd is getting upset
9:45 AM The Watch grabs the Rolling Rocks a bard band to entertain the crowd.
10 AM the Duke arrives. He gives out the murdered Gharizol. He urges the people not to loot drop the suspect. He tells people to remain calm. He takes AN ARROW RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES. An Imp and two Nupperibo devils appear out his forehead. The party goes into action. (I should start them 150 feet away but only did 50 feet.) Between sleep spells and attack spells the devils are dead or captured before half the party goes. Chesserie Warden one the people working second shift has killed the assassin. In the assassin’s pocket is a hit list with the duke’s name, Segren Hall, and Wellum Smit. The group starts walking toward the warehouse to see if they are okay.
They are stopped by 12 cultists. Four to one odds. The cultists tell them to run. The group does. TOWARD the cultists. Between sleep spells, attack spells, and four yes only four melee attacks the cultists are dead or captured. And only Maxwell is hurt. (HAHA. The script calls for the pcs to run and do a chase scene. Under an hour in and the group has finished two hours’ worth of content.)
The group arrives at warehouse. Dara is missing with old man Ghorin and their pet goat. But nobody cares because she was not important in any other modules except as a quest giver. Segren and Wellum are secured in the warehouse office. The warehouse has a keg of nails. 8 two by four by ten boards. Six two by four by six boards. A set of ball bearings. A bag of caltrops. Some wood scrap which could be burned. The warehouse has a set of double doors and one window. (I gave the group ten real minutes to come up with a plan.)
The six-foot boards board up the window and the caltrops were placed under the window. Maxwell would guard the window. Agent Bob would guard the victims to be. Most of the ten-foot boards secured the double doors. The ball bearings were put behind the doors. The rest of boards had nails driven into and placed behind the ball bearings. (I treat the boards as caltrops.) A ten by ten-foot section behind the boards had the floor boards pulled up. (difficult terrain. Note I was offering and getting input from the players on how to handle the improvised stuff. Hey the module does not tell you what the floor is like.) So, the first ten foot by twenty foot long part of warehouse behind the doors are secured. Kayn Nyak is taking point on the front left of the ware house peeking out between the wooden planks of the warehouse. (Think old western barn where the heroes can see and shoot out.) Shade is holding the center of the warehouse. (and ACTION um Initiative.)
Charles Winchester the Third Cultist, “Alright you dirty Flaming Fist beep Fools. Send out Segren and Wellum and no one gets hurt.”
Kayn moves aside on of planks and throws a dagger into Charles Winchester the third’s face.
Charles Winchester the Third Cultist,” Ok boys. It the Necro drop way!” Two cultists flank right to get around to the window. Two cultists pull out their crowbars.
Shade, “HEY That’s cheating only PC’s should have crow bars.”
Kayn Nyak, “Crow bars. Regular bars. I going to need a drink.”
Charles Winchester the Third Cultist charges toward Kayn position and tries to stab him through the opening in the planks. A crack is heard as the doors are being broken into.
Kayn stabs Charles Winchester the Third making him Charles Winchester the dead. A cultist who had been low crawling from behind the back wall pops up and tries to get in to the window. (Yes, script says he just pops up at the window.) Maxwell spells him to death. One of the right flankers tries to beat down the wall to the office. The other right flanker grabs the crowbar and starts on the window. Agent Bob moves up to take the right side of warehouse door.
The doors burst open. One of the cultists goes to attack Kayn the other Bob. A spined devil teleports into center of the room. Dashes into the office. Grabs Wellum and teleports away.
Shade, “Hey that is cheating.!”
Maxwell, “That is not fair.”
Agent Bob, “that is not right!”
Kayn, “I am new what is happening.”
DM, “Yes I AM CHEATING. I will explain later.”
A brief pause as the players call dm names and want answers. Back to the action.
Maxwell, “Agent Bob, take yours alive!”
Agent Bob, “what? “and casts a spell killing his opponent.
Maxell, “Take Kayn’s cultist alive.”
Kayn and Shade both attack that cultist killing him.
Maxell. “SLEEP! I have to do myself!”
The group captures one cultist alive who turns state evidence and tells where the secret lair is. They are going to sacrifice Wellum to Zariel very soon. You should run and get there very soon.
Maxwell, “Not before a short or long rest.”
Shade, “Long rest.”
Agent Bob, “Long rest.”
Kayn Nyak, “What is a long rest?”
DM. “Hmm you can take a short rest. Or long rest. But a long rest would be bad. Didn’t I mention Wellum is going to sacrificed soon!”
Maxwell, “Short rest”
Shade, “Short rest”
Agent Bob, “Short Rest!’
Kayn, “what is a short rest?”
DM, “A short rest is…’ I explain to the new person what a short rest. While the group is doing the adjustments, I set up the final encounter. YES, the final encounter which would not happen if I didn’t kidnap Wellum. Note the second bonus objective is very railroad. No matter what the group does at the warehouse some how Wellum gets captured and the party charges off in pursuit. I dropped everything except for the cave encounters.
The group finds the Zariel cult secret lair. They encounter a glyph of warding. After a few minutes Maxwell remember G was on the coin from the assassin and is the name of what his name. (Again, crowd noise in the shop. People not taking notes. And I not stressing people take notes cause this to delay the game.) Maxwell says Gharizol which deactivates the glyph.
The first group of cultists charge and most get chopped to pieces. The second group of cultists join them. (AND I DID NOT ROLL ABOVE A 9) Sam the spined devil demands the party join the Zariel cult or die. They make the cultists die. Then they make the devil die. They are a little beaten up as they turn the last corner to see the last cultist dump a basket of centipedes on top of Wellum’s head. Wellum goes down.
Shade, “Darn he is wimp.”
Dm, “It in the script. Um. The cultists and devil had fun with him beforehand. Yea. That is the ticket.”
Kayn,” You mean I have to save him. CHARGE!” He dashes into save the npc. ‘Oh, my gawds. They all over me. They biting me. OUCH!” He drops to zero.
The rest of group around the corner. Agent Bob takes out an imp. Maxwell slides into the swarm and uses his healing potion to bring up Wellum. Shade slides into the swarm and heals Kayn.
Shade gets bitten and goes down. Wellum runs out the chamber. And group dog piles the swarm. (Note must remember swarm takes half damage from melee attacks.)
They return to the warehouse. Agent Bob has found a nice gold coin which has the name Little Timmy on it. Dara arrives in a new white freshly iron and starched robe. The old man turns into planetar and the goat turns into a deva.
Dara, “You don’t have a pack of cigarettes, it is light outside. You don’t have sunglasses. “
The back wall collapses. A huge wagon drawn by a small mule spins into the center of the warehouse nearly tips over and then settles on all four wheels. A Shou man with a blue pseudodragon sleeping on his head grins. He spits a wad of tobacco out.
“Well howdy partners. Heard y’all heading down the highway to hell. Need a lift!”
Dara, “Fai Che…….”
To be continued next week. Same Bad D&D Channel. Same Bad D&D time.

 

[jasper]

Descent into Avernus Session 4
Chapter 1 Part 4
Jail Break, Runaway, Raid.
Days 4 to 11
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 63 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escape 4
Either gain a level, or promote to level 5. Gain 10 downtime days and 80 GP per level.
Magic Items Pipes of the Sewers, Infernal Puzzle box. Note the box is a 6-inch cube. Weight 3 pds. DC 30 investigation to open. DC 18 wisdom save or take 42. This is not a story item. Shield of Hidden Lord STORY ITEM DIA page 225 +2 To AC and Fire resistance. See the hardcover for more information.
Story Award Friend of Hhune. You rescued old lady Hhune. One free spell casting service up to 1,000 GP.
Story Award and Story Item Lulu the Hollyphant. A small pink elephant that flies. Page 237 for stat block. Page 50 for her unlocks per chapter. She will be with party for the rest of the book.
Story Award Steve the Vet (John/Agent Bob). Agent Bob is still on probation with the Flaming Fist. A Veteran has been assigned to watch over him. Agent Bob can use him as a companion when the group is weak. Or as other dms allow.
Story Award One set of Zariel cultist robes.
Story Item Map of Avernus. Gives a clue as you arrive at a location. Page 79-80 Descent.
Magic Item for Completely Useless Fang aka baby tooth of Tiamat. +1 vs devils dagger.
PLEASE WRITE THE STORY AWARDS DOWN.
I had a weak group of four. Shade bard 3. Agent Bob Wizard 2. Alfred Hellsing Warlock 1. Completely Useless Wizard 1 who is mute and uses illusions to communicate.
Ok. I started the group where they left off in one of temple chambers. They enter a secret room behind the altar to discover another altar and Duke Thalamra Vanthampur. (ALERT ALERT Group is totally over match. Play nice with the squishy.) They decide not to join Zariel’s cult. She who will kick the group butt. Does so. Dropping Agent Bob with one spell. Taking Alfred down by half with another spell. The group surrenders. (WAIT WHAT!)
The Duchess summons more cultists, who manacle then group. Gag the group. Toss in a nicely lit warm prison cell. After issuing them freshly washed (ignore the blood stains they hard to get out.) orange rags for clothing. In the prison across the way is Falaster Fisk a thin man in his fifties (No his brother Handover is not here). He came from Candlekeep to use the Vanthampur library on Zariel for research his boss Sylvira Savikas. Falaster was very surprise when he discovered the Vanthampur were actual worshipers of Zariel. But he is very happy because now instead of fifty-fifty chance of being sacrificed tonight his odds are one in six. An old lady about seventy-five name Satiir Thion-Hhume. She and the Duchess are rivals for the open slot for the next Duke of Baldur’s Gate. The group grows quiet as Barney Bearded Devil arrives. He is their jailer. He causally puts the cage keys on a hook by his desk. And engages them in conversation. They don’t answer. He asks more questions. They don’t answer. Then he (OKAY THE DM) remembers they are gagged. He cuts off the gags and ask them a few questions and mocks them. After getting board with them, he asks do they want fresh mostly dead rat in their rat stew or fully cook rat. They don’t answer so he decides he go hunting and fully cook the rat because they don’t deserve a treat so soon.
Mostly Useless cast acid splash on the lock repeatedly. (YES, THIS IS NOT HOW THE SPELL WORKS. Don’t expect the DM to be this nice again.) This weaken the lock and they break free. They go to get the keys and Shade wonders why they just didn’t mage hand the keys. (WHY. Um Hmm. Because small little d-clip you could see, secures the key. Yes, that the ticket. WHAT do you mean no has Mage Hand? DM’s Head to table.)
The group frees the prisoners and bluffs the front gate guards. (Agent Bob got 23+. I got 10) They return to the police station and have to decide assault or sneak back in. (OKAY the group is way under powered for this section. I gave Agent Bob an NPC Veteran to be the meat shield. Since he had fun with the NPC, I decide to give the veteran as a companion. Agent Bob remember Steve does average damage when he hits). NOTE. The group chooses assault. So, most of the combat is going happen off board and I will look through the rest of this part of chapter and choose a few encounters.
The Flaming Fist Foolish Four and the rest of the cops assault the villa. The Flaming Fist Foolish Four take the upstairs. The rest of cops head down to the dungeon. They take out the five guards on the second floor. Shade knocks on one door.
Voice, “Go away. I am bathing. Mom. (SEE THERE IS PERIOD BETWEEN BATHING AND MOM)”
Shade knocks again.
Voice, “MOM. I said I was bathing.”
Completely Useless throws open the door and walks in. (Useless no I don’t! DM yes you do. Just go with it.) He ducks and grabs the infernal puzzle box that was throw at him. Thurstwell Vanthampur is bathing. In all his clothes. He still has shampoo in his hair. He is brutally spelled, stabbed, stabbed and spelled before he can get the soap out his eyes. And his imp companion is waxed too. Most of rest of second story rooms are empty. As they looting the Duchess bedroom, Agent Bob opens the study and a Helmed Horror attacks the group. (Note reduced the hit points by half). They destroy the horror and gripe that it won’t fit the bard. They head down into the sewers.
The group gets ahead of one the raiding group and opens the vault. Inside is Thavius Kreeg a thin man who casts a really fat shadow. Thavius Kreeg is priest wearing a holy symbol but tells the group it is a symbol of Zariel. Yes, he believes it. The group TALKS to him. He enjoys polishing the golden shield of the hidden lord. He talks to the shield and it talks aback. He knows Agent Bob and the rest of the Foolish Four are going to hell. Agent Bob agrees.
Note Thavius was talking in general but Bob answered him specifically.
Thavius, “Well since you going to hell soon. Take the shield. Mr. Gargauth inside the shield wants to go to hell to be freed of his curse. And take these new robes because your outfits suck.”
The group thank Thavius and arrest him. They then go back to the station. Where they are drafted by Commander Liara Portyr to go to Candlekeep so the puzzle box and shield can be examined. On the way to Candlekeep they are ambushed by a bearded devil and guard. At Candlekeep they meet various people and learn various things.
The puzzle box holds the contract between Zariel and Thavius Kreeg. Kreeg is responsible for the city being taken. (Holy. Grr. ALL DMS on page 41 of Thavius description add note to see page 47.)
Shield of the Hidden Lord. A pit fiend is inside the shield. It ticked off Asmodeus. It will serve the party in hell as a guide and advisor. (DM NOTE. No, I don’t know how this will work out. We will play by ear.)
Map of Avernus page 79-80 is given to group by Sylvira one of high commanders of Candlekeep.
Arriving at Traxigor’s Tower, the otter Traxigor wakes up Lulu. Lulu is a Hollyphant. Lulu was Zariel’s companion and hid Zariel’s sword before Zariel was captured by devils. Lulu does not remember where she hid the sword. Lulu has lost some of her memories and powers. See page 51 and 50 of the book. Lulu speaks Celestial and by telepathy. She is pink.
After a long rest, a good meal, and a hot bath the group step into the circle and are plane shifted to hell with Traxigor the otter and Reya Mantlehorn a veteran.
DM Comment. The last four pages of Chapter 1 is mostly a great information dump. You could use it for various seeds if you were homebrewing.

 

[jasper]

DDAL09-05 Session
Wheeler Dealers
Day 11
PC Killed 0 Monster Killed 87 Villains Captured 8 Villains Escaped 0
Magic Items Soul Coin each except for Jeffery
Gain a level. 240 GP. 20 Downtime days.
Story Awards will be given in the text.
Soul Coins Generally have 3 charges. Can be traded for goods, services, and spells. IF I CAN FIND THE CHART. It weights 3 pounds. An evil creature (includes pcs) can as many as they want. Non evil one coin per constitution modifier without penalty. After that you have disadvantage on Attack, Ability checks and Saving throws. (Hmm why did any of those guys tell about this. Psst. They are Evil). You can at will drain one charge to do the follow. Gain 1d10 hit points. Or Query the coin. The coin only knows what it knew in life and must answer. It is telepathic. These are EVIL acts. You can free the soul by destroying the coin. AC 19 1 HP per charge. But small print says it must be a hellfire weapon page 223 DIA or infernal war machine furnace page 217 DIA. The spell chart I was thinking on was Pipyap’s deals from the epic on page 57 of the epic.
Infernal War machine come in many shapes and sizes. They have a damage threshold. You must exceed the threshold to do damage. So, if the threshold is 5 you have to do 6 points of damage. All 6 points will count. Infernal War machines use soul coins as fuel. 24 hours per charge. DIA 216-222. Note some the modules may have different rules.
Infernal Contracts. Vary to having owning a promise to giving up your soul. If you break the contract, I will roll on the Flesh warping chart on page 78.
Demon Ichor. DC 10 Con save. On Failed save roll on Flesh warping chart page 78. Damage etc. may change per module.
Death Insurance. Automatic 20 on next death save. Cost? Let me get my manager and we give you a quote.
I had a strong group of seven but made only one adjustment to AC. John C Warlock 3 Cleric 3. John H (forgot to write his pc name down) Ranger 6. Suka Warlord 8. Brandy Cleric 5. Shade bard 5. Tara BoomDelay Rogue 3, monk 2, Bard 3. Jeffery Darhma Paladin 5 and Monk 5.
A few hours ago, Dara arrive at the warehouse. It was drafty. No. No. She drafted you. You have no sunglasses. No sun screen. No Sun block. No car. No phone. Not a single luxury. Um. You are on a mission from the god Illmater. You here to save the souls of the Hellriders lost a hundred years. And a few side quests as the modules say son. The angels Ausuriel and Rinzel have wimped out leaving all alone with Fai Chen. Yes, that Fai Chen the magical magic merchant of the multiverse.
Fai Chen tells Suka,” Quit looking at my behind.”
Suka, “I am not looking at your behind. Dara’s behind. Brandy’s behind. Or Tara’s behind.”
Fai Chen, “STUPID. I said look behind you.!”
Suka and the party look to their rear. (Not that rear!) Six war machines have pulled up 60 feet behind them.
Fai Chen” Hi! Mule. Booqity. Booquity. Booquity. Let’s go racing on the highway to hell!” (Note my group was getting into the mad max and hell theme. It helped I had six Lego war machines made up.)
NOTE. Dms use the chart in the module to keep track of distance between the party’s wagon and the war machine. I also did not track exact distances most of time. I did make some calls on the fly about how spells would work. And got feed back from the players. Only run 4 rounds of the fighter due time it talks to run and explain things.
On the far outside was Steamroller and Rockets. On the middle track were Blue Cop and Thin Boy (Note thin boy was too small and kept tipping over.) On the inside were Speaker and Cement. (All Rolling Razors AC 18. I treated them as all devils regardless of stats. The machine had a driver, gunner (+5 to hit 8 damage) and boarder. They could switch positions but it would take a moment. Also, there mess with the party chart. At the end of pc turn, they roll d10 on a chart. It goes off at the beginning of the next pc turn. Write it down. Fai Chen goes on 20. The racers go on 18, 12, and 8. I did that outside to inside.)
The plains of hell turn against the players. Pot holes open up in front of the dashing wagon. Great hell farts appear. Monsters attack from the sky.
The first round Steel Roller and Rockets got within 60 feet of the group. All of them took a disliking to Suka and all the gunners shot at him. Mostly missing. Now it is hard to recreate what exactly happen due to me make some judgements on the fly. And note taking notes during the game. But Brandy is a back-seat driver two or three times she blocked Fai Chen’s eyes and demand he drive faster, no slower, and watch out for the big pot hole. Jeffery know hell farts smell and make you sick. Around round three Suka cast fireball taking out Steel Roller. This was a good and bad thing. Steel Roller blew up. RIGHT in front of the wagon. It luckily did not crash into the wagon but flip over the wagon causing everyone to duck. And then blew up over the wagon. (Ok not really Suka rolled a 5 which on John C turn meant a fireball from hell hit the wagon. The first boarder did not make the jump and was ran over by the rear wheels of the wagon. They pushed another boarder off the wagon on into the path of the rear wheels. Jeffrey in the final round beat up the gunner on Thin Boy. Stunned the driver. Pop the clutched. Broke the axle and jabbed the steering column so it would turn. Suka took down Speakers with a lightning bolt at range zero.
Fai Chen did a hard slide into Mahadi’s wandering Emporium. Where they Hell of good deeds. Shop smart. Shop Soul mart. Mahadi is surprise to see his old employee Fai Chen back at the shopping mall. He tells the group, one major rule exists. NO FIGHTING. NO SPELLCASTING. DOES NOT MATTER WHO STARTS IT. YOU ARE BANISHED. He then tells the group he may have job or two for them but look around, go shopping, and relax. Again, not going to go in detail about all the happenings but here are the highlights.
Story Award What who you do for a Klondike Bar? John C sold his soul for one. Alright the feast of heroes made out heroes prepared by Jeffery Dahmer was good. Result John C you are disadvantage against Insight checks against Mahadi. Mahadi owns your soul. If you die, a true resurrection or wish is needed to bring you back.
Story Award Killer Rider. John H aka the Ranger sold his sold for a new motorcycle. Rash, Skids, and Scrapper own your soul. You have a Devil’s Ride page 218 DIA. Nice pin stripping. Lots of Chrome. If you die, a true resurrection or wish is needed to bring you back. Should I tell the fuel gauge is low and he only has gas for one day?
Tara BoomDelay got a shave and a haircut from Burney. And a healer kit with +3 to heal. Brandy is dandy but a potion is quicker. Brandy learn from a mutant mage roper mix there is unicorn and vat of demon ichor nearby. Now that is a rare job opportunity.
Story Award Own my soul to the company store, ALMOST. Jeffery has been given license to set up a franchise of Trollskull Manor taverns in Hell. Cost. Mahadi owns your next two levels. The next two times you advance you only get the level. Gold, downtime days, and magic items go to Mahadi.
The group shopping trip was out this world but they finally went to see Mahadi for a job. He had two find the name of the spy who is slipping information to the Rusty Razors. Kill the leader of the Rusty Razors. The Rusty Razors were the group that tried to run the group over on the highway to hell.
(OK. So, once you get to the Mahadi, you find three job offer. Spy. Assassination. Or unicorn hunt. I suggest dm’s go off script and just choose one these jobs if they are running this as a four-hour session.)
The group decides to find the spy. (Okay time wise this was the shortest mission. DMS add more clues about the spy.) They know Fai Chen is not a spy because he was with them all day. But Fai Chen maybe a spy because he was eating at the restaurant in morning, and he was seen leaving Shave and a Haircut today just as they were pulling in. WHAT THE BEEP FAI CHEN! (Leave this up to dms you could play for laughs.) They are at least 13 Fai Chen. Years ago, Fai Chen made a deal with Mahadi. The exact details near will tell but Fai Chen got the wrong end of the deal. But he found a wise old monk to taught his Kung Fu. Karate. Twi Kong do. Chop Suey. The 4-centimeter punch. Still with the martial art skills Fai Chen could not get out his contract. So, he hid in a dark cave and learn the ancient way of Xerox Pow. Yes, Fai Chen can make copies of himself. So, Fai Chen cannot be the spy. So, the group broke up again and when shopping for a spy. Again, just the highlights.
Story Award for Suka. Franks famous Fiend Fry Chicken with five herbs and souls. Chicken George (yes, I went there) likes your style. You save on your next survival check with advantage.
Story Award Mad Maggie gossip for Shade. After talking with owner of the statue shop you have some juicy gossip. No, I don’t know how this will work. If you meet Mad Maggie, I will handle it.
The group are occasionally meeting the mall center to exchange notes. Finally, John C gets a name while shopping at Carpets made from Pets. John C runs out of the shop and into the open.
John C yelling, “BEIRGROACH! BEIRGROACH! BIERGROACH IS THE SPY!” All the flying imps look at John C. Well except Beirgroach, is stunned that the jig is up. John C dashes forward and does a flying tackle and grapples the imp.
Jeffrey dashes forward and KILLS THE IMP 13+ points of damage. “This one is for you Amosdeus.”
RED ALERT! RED ALERT! LOCK DOWN! LOCK DOWN! FIGHTING IN THE COMPOUND! The merchants lock up quickly.
Mahadi approaches the group. He is red with anger.
John C, “You know the name of the spy now.”
Mahadi, “everyone knows the name of the spy”
Jeffery, “See he is dead right there. Now about that reward!’
Mahadi, “What did is say I needed. I said I need the name of the spy. A dead spy is no use to me. Except for throwing in the stew pot. You are banished from the Emporium. “
Jeffery, “But what about my deal.”
Mahadi, “Your deal is still on. You can build your Trollskull Manor Tavern on my lands. BUT you can never enter my lands. WELCOME TO BEING AN ABSENT LANDLORD.”
Mahadi to everyone else. “Here your sign (I with stupid and the arrow always point to Jeffery). And your soul coin.”
Story Award Jeffery. You are banished from the Emporium. You start all Tier 2 Season 9 modules with a level of exhaustion which you can’t get rid of.
The end.
My group enjoyed running this and got into the hell theme and cutting a deal. A DM will have to watch the time.

 

[jasper]

Here are some pictures of hell machines. I used legos to make them.

 

[jasper]

Descent into Avernus Session 5
Chapter 2 Part 1
A Beautiful day in the Neighborhood
Day 12
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 83 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escape 4
Daniel Gain a level to level 5. Everyone else was Tier 2 gain 90 GP.
Magic Items Braces of Defense. Earth Elemental Gem.
I had an average group once Reya the NPC veteran was added. John C Cleric 3 Warlock 4. Shade Bard 6. Dausha Fighter 8. Daniel Fighter 4. Lulu The Hollyphant DIA 237 (Someone will have run her in the next session.)
OOPS Forgot the Shield of Hidden Lord was supposed to be carried by one of the fighters. See page 225 for stats.
The party awakens in Traxigor’s Tower. After breakfast the otter Traxigor gathers into a circle and cast Plane Shift taking the party to Elturel. Sudden the party freezes. When they come to the otter and ran away or disappeared. They are in the first level of hell and their future does not look bright. A 400-foot in diameter sphere is high over their heads. Lightning is hitting the city, sometimes very close. They start wandering to find a map or a guide.
A kid runs up holding a stick and passes to Shade. The kid and his family passes through the group. Around the corner come three bearded devils with a formula on their shirts. The Formula is in Infernal. Shade asks the three what the formula mean.
Devil Ei, “Evil is relative. Evil is best when Evil Equals Mayhem Times Cutting square.”
Devil Ns, “Your wrong. Evil is best when Evil Equals Murder Times Cannibalism square. Remember Cannibalism is a healthy life style as long you eat square meals. “
Devil Tein, “Wrong. Evil is best when Evil Equals Malice Times Cunning Square.”
Shade does not get the formula and the party attacks wiping out the devils. The group now have an escort mission. Take Hunt family to High Hall as it the only known safe place. They decide to take the quick route to the hall. Torm’s Blade. (2 wandering monster checks). They fight off a dozen fresh zombies who were former city residents.
They get to bridge Torm’s Blade. One problem in the middle of bridge are two bearded devils and a Spined devil. The devils start to approach when the group see some runes on the guardrail of the bridge. John C recognizes the religious runes. He activates the runes and the bridge glows with radiant energy. This instantly fries the Spined Devil and takes the others down about half their hit points. (Guess the devils should paid attention during their classes on other people’s religions. One my players noted this was kind of stupid.)
After defeating the devils and crossing the bridge; they see four cloak people dash into a seven eleven. John C follows them. As John C enters the store four ghast rip him to pieces. The rest of group rushes toward the store.
As he is lies on the floor bleeding out, a lady with a white shirt with Purgatory in blue appears in front of him.
Olf, “Would you like to buy death save insurance? For just the cost of your soul.”
John C, “No.”
Olf, “how about what my is yours. For a one shot save.”
John C, “OK”
The party is trying to enter the store and getting in the way. They see John C about to be tore apart by four ghasts. Suddenly John C stands up. Brushing off and polishing his symbol, he holds it forth and blast the ghasts to four corners of room. “That is enough from you.” He turns around and walks out.
Story Award John C “You owe me one.” Next time you take a level John C. No gold, no magic, and no downtime.
As the party starts to close the door, Dausha hears the voice of a young girl. He rushes in to save her. The group defeats the ghasts in a tough fight. They need a safe place to rest. There is no safe place to rest except in the High Hall. (The players give the DM dirty looks.)
Story Award everyone “You are my hero.” You save Shorah Hevrin. You gain inspiration. This lasts until you use it but you must use it in Season 9.
The group barely make to the courtyard of the High Hall only to get roasted and toasted by some hell hounds. The group slow limits into the center altar of the hall. The altar of Torm is before them. They clean it off. Some get their full hit points back. Others get their damage reduced by half. (Bad editing on page 60. Is it a Charisma or Religion check?)
They stumble north and Seltern Obranch grabs each by the neck and shove a goodberry down their throats. He had hidden among the dead bodies of his companions. The rest of hall people have fled below to crypts. Still no save place to rest. (Players are really get tired of the dm.)
Seltern shows the group how to open the secret door. The party go down into the crypts and sack out for the night. (mostly safe place.) In the morning they wander through the crypts not finding any survivors.
In one temple they do find some rich crypts. Shade and Daniel decide to loot one. Lulu is not happy. They awaken a mummy and beat to dust. They explore the northern part of crypts and finally find where the final hold out is. They have reach the really safe space.
NOTE. We will pick this back up on Day 12. Long Rest. H16 Main Crypts Page 63.
DM Question. The group that wanted to play the hard cover on Sunday are mostly not showing up. Would anyone mind if I move the Hardcover to being ran on Friday. And the modules run on Sunday?

 

[jasper]

Descent into Avernus Session 6
Chapter 2 Part 2
Grave Mistake
Day 13
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 108 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escape 4
Dead body on the floor! Dead body on the floor. RECON. RECON. Okay I said I only recon if their a dead body on the floor. Mimi did not die. See Lulu rules clarification.
If you are below level 7 you are promoted to level 7. If are 7+ 120 gp. Remember it 8 hours in a hardback after Tier 1.
Magic Items. +1 Studded Leather, +2 weapon your choice, +1 Long sword, potion of invisibility. Scroll of Mass healing. Scroll of Remove Curse. Scroll of Tongues.
Disappeared Magic Items Shield of Hidden Lord was supposed to be carried by one of the fighters. See page 225 for stats.
Rules Clarifications. If you heavily obscured and your enemy is, you both roll with disadvantage.
Rule Clarification Lulu page 237 Aura of Invulnerability. Oops I ran this wrong. Okay this difficult. She can suppress it. And we have two pc who are followers of Amosdeus. I am going to be naughty. If the group is strong and an evil PC is in the party, she will suppress it. So, at this time she has Aura, Light, and her actions. Lulu always go on one.
Rule Clarification Soul coins are considered magical. Yes, you can drop a soul coin out your inventory for new magic. (HISSS tell me when you do this, I will work this into the game).
Rule Clarification Mahadi Exhaustion rule is only in affect during Tier two modules not the book. Soul Coins can be trade to Dara or other individuals for spell casting services. Page 60 of content catalogue.
Sign in Notes. When you log in, I need to know the number of soul coins you own. If you are still in ownership of your soul. If you use charges from Soul Coins track them. 1 charge of soul coin gives 1d10 hit points. See page 226 for more info. Roleplaying notice, you are in hell. Your flaws are eating at you and your bonds are weakening.
I had a very strong group of eight. John C Cleric Warlock. Shade Bard. Surahana Paladin rogue. Brandy Cleric. Mimi Rogue ranger. Jersey Wizard rogue. Job Blackwing Wizard fighter. Jeffery Dahmer the feebleminded monk (pay 450 gp to remove).
I added some monsters, bumped the hit points and moved one encounter.
The group awakes on day 13 in a puppy pile of snotty nose kids. Some more adventures made into the main crypt after midnight and just crashed. Jersey was kind of confused. The last they remember were they were in Waterdeep. And they did not get the message when Pherria Jynks told they were in hell. (Great role-playing Jersey.) While Jersey was finding out that New Jersey is only slightly better than Zariel’s plane of pleasure, Shade was asked for a drink of water from one of the rug rats. She got her water and pointed out the secret door. Great job Shade, I am not throwing shade but a kid sees more clearly than you. (Note the players can claim two flasks of holy water from the fonts.) The secret door takes to a long hallway which ends in hell. Okay 666 Feet above the first plane of hell. Nice view. And a quick fight with reskinned minotaur skeletons.
The group gears up to go look for Duke Ravengard who went off to the cemetery to find the holy hand ….. the Holy Helm of Torm’s Sight (patent pending). So, they need to take this grave mission to find the duke. Or they can stay and entertain the kindergarten kids. They were cowards and went in search of the duke.
On the way they had their first loot drop, dropping three spined devils and two merregons for +1 studded leather and potion of invisibility.
Entering the cemetery and walking onto the porch of the chapel, the party notices the pillars of eight heroes. Jeffery recites a quick prayer to Amosdeus for the hero of Torm Ca’sar. This lays Ca’sar soul to rest but the other seven souls have been turned by Zariel into shadows and ghosts. And they are not happy. A quick fight later the undead are gone.
Kicking in the two doors of the chapel, they see four, no six, and ignore the two behind the curtain minotaur skeletons. Jeffery and Job start trash talking and praising Amosdeus, this ticks off Gideon who call for reinforcements. One big battle latter with two cloudkill, Gideon’s special attack, and lots of luck on the monsters’ part; Mille is mostly dead (Dead in game but recon due Lulu globe). Brandy is had what. Speak up Brandy how many hit points. What can’t hear you. OH. With Brandy at FIVE HP and about to be dog piled by Gideon and his group, Jeffery Stuns Gideon. And a sneak attack, smite, and I don’t know what at from Surahana for 75 hit points the part wins.
Question to players. Do you want me bump encounters when you very strong? This does pull time away from explore most of area. Or don’t adjust and let you explore each room.
(Cut scene due end of game time.) The group explores the chapel finding the duke mostly dead. They take him back to big crypt and perform a ceremony healing him. He lays out the following information.
A blooded woman in armour with flashy sword.
Same woman with gold… pink flying elephant near her. This unlocks Lulu’s first memory. Yes, we are going to go in order.
Big really big demon threating to eat the woman, so she drives the sword into the plain. This creates a huge fort. But hell fought back and scabbed the fort over.
The pink elephant wandering mindlessly until finding two kenku.
Lulu memory is she use to fly and was a mount for Zariel. The kenku are Chukka and Clonk and own a junk yard called Fort Knucklebone. It is currently only ten miles away. The group just have to avoid the army of devils. The army of demons who are fighting the devils. The hell heats. Not big deal. (end of cut scene).
The duke demands the group find the sword and save the city. The group agrees. They go to the new city limit and jump into hell! Okay seven of them feather fall into hell, and Jeffery thinks his monk abilities is hot stuff. He faces plants into one boulder, bounces off the second. Misses the high ground and slides into the River Styx. Becoming feebleminded. The group fishes him out the water. And hears something behind them.
We will continue from page 73 next time.
Start time 6:23 End time 9:54.

 

[jasper]

Ok my group is giving me mixed signals. They want to play the hard cover but come game day some don't. Also I will no longer trying to force push them through the chapter unless they go totally off the rails. I this means only three or four rooms are checked out so be it.

 

[jasper]

DDAL09-06 Session

Infernal Insurgency

Or Daniel Stay Down

Day 12

PC Killed 0 Monster Killed 109 Villains Capture 9 Villains Escaped 0

Gain a level. Gain 20 down time days. But only gain 200 gp for leveling due to buying the mercs weapons.

Magic Items Glamoured Studded Leather, Soul coin, Sling bullet of Tiefling Slaying, potion of Fire Giant Strength.

Story Award Shade a “Stain upon your soul” in trading in 3 charges of a soul coin for a raise dead scroll. 1 charge left on his coin. What this does has not been set in stone.

Story Award Shade. No Haircuts. Burney the Barber hates you for some reason. No spell casting service from her.

Story Award Plague of Plaguesheild. You destroy the dump and left witnesses. They have nickname you. Smiling Shade. Smiting Surahana. Horrible Hagus. Glass jaw Daniel. Timid Justin Thyme. Write these down on your notes. How this story award affects you has not been set in stone?

Story Award. War Machine Driver. You fulfilled the contract with the Gear box salamanders. They taught you to drive war machines for the rest of season 9 hardcover and modules you have proficiency handling war machines. This goes away at the end of the season.

I had an average group of five Smiling Shade bard. Smiting Surahana Paladin Rogue. Horrible Hagus fighter. Glass jaw Daniel Fighter. Timid Justin Thyme Bard sorcerer rogue.

The group learns about the dump from Dara. The Dump is a secret research and development warehouse for Zariel. Their mission since they must follow the plot hook is to sneak in and destroy the Dump, and gather any secret plans they can. Rash the salamander of the Gear Box is willing to teach the group how to drive war machines if they bring back the prototype war machine from the Dump. But they must sign a contract of if they fail they get bad mouthed around the Emporium. The salamanders will sneak the group out of the Emporium underneath the spies’ noses. Why? Because the module wants the group to sneak out. Elliach will give them unholy hand grenades to blow up the dump. Um problem. The unholy hand grenades are the size of fifty-five-gallon beer keg each. He wants part of rubble if they blow up the Dump. But the group must sign a contract to sell their souls. No to be bad mouthed if they don’t complete the contract. Burney the Barber will give them the last know location of a helpful silver dragon who is lost in Hell. Hmm don’t know why that is a plot hook. Um. Okay Burney will give the group some black mail information on Z’neth the owner of the pet shop. If they capture the devil Trondoz ALIVE. And sign a contract which if they fail they get bad mouthed around the Emporium.

Z’neth wanted their souls to give up the location of the Dump. But with the black mail information, the group just have sign a contract to find and recover alive her two blue guard drakes. Or they get bad mouthed around the Emporium.

(Gee. No one wants to sale their soul for information. And the module does not suggest a work around.)

The group hires the mercenaries to provide a distraction, hey for 200 GP they get magic items. (Note due how badly the module is laid out and what it hints, I just reduce some the encounters at the Dump. In game reason was the mercenaries were setting off alarms.)

The group sneak out of the Emporium in the trunk of Rash’s ride. Ignore the bullet holes your dirty rats and enjoy the air and blood stains. As they approach the Dump, they are nearly hit by a hell meteor! Why because the module says so. Hagus scouts out the final mile. He finds the highway to hell. Um. Yes, a road up on top of cliff which over hangs the dump. Does this road have an exit to the Dump? Yes, and no. No according to the bad maps provided. Yes, according to the text of two encounters. The group decides to rope each person down by tying a rope to the PC and having Fai Chen number four move the wagon back toward the cliff. Shade will dimension door down with some of unholy kegs. (Oh goody, the going through the module in reverse. Sigh!)

They sneak in. Murder Grinka Swamphair and take the secret plans to a war robot and plans to prototype war machine. Sneaking to next floor they murder Chalice Void the home owner. Capture Trondoz Wildsnow alive. Good job Hagus and Daniel. And off Nuldrath. They sneak down to the basement to recover the guard drakes and plant the unholy kegs. (Yes dropped some of the encounters.)

They get to the basement and shove the unholy kegs into an empty cage. Hagus goes to unlock one cage which has a guard drake in it. Its howl of joy alerts the barracks of goblins and the war robot. The war robot always targets PCs of good alignment. It charges Daniel. The goblins pour out the barracks.

Hagus flubs opening the cage of the single guard drake but the party holds the line and kill most of the goblins. (page 15 should have said see random patrol table on page 12). Hagus opens the cage of the guard drake. Um Vrock. Yes, it an illusion. (Evil dm laugh). The war robot hates the goody good Daniel and zeroes him out. Once. Swings at Hagus. Notices Daniel is back up, so zeroes him out again. Swings at Hagus. Notices Daniel is back up yet again. Hits Daniel and zeroes him out for a third time. Swings a Hagus again. Notices Daniel is healed again. So hits him twice. Zeroing him out for the fourth time and giving him two fails on death saves. The war robot goes to deal with the rest of group. After smacking various pcs around for a round or two notices Glass Jaw Daniel is healed again; walks over and TKOs Daniel for the fifth time. Just as the war robot about to kill Daniel the group finishes it off. And then make short work of the Vrock. They light the fuse on the kegs. Steal a war machine and leave just as the Dump explodes.

(DMs rant. I swear half these modules this season I feel that I am play testing them as I run them.)

 

[jasper]

Descent into Avernus Session 7
Chapter 3 Part 1
Mad Maggie Merry Mirth
Day 14-15
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 125 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escape 4
We will pick up next time on page 87.
Magic Items Hellfire Warhammer +0 sheds dim light 5 feet. If you kill a humanoid, the got to hell to be born a Lemure. 3 soul coins.
Dropped out of play items. Shield of the Hidden Lord no one wants to own it. Left at Mad Maggie’s place.
Treasure Silvered Pike or silver one of you weapons.
Advancement If under 7 go to level 7 taking 240 GP, and 20 downtime days per level. If 7+ 4 hours of play and 60 GP.
Story Award All Made Maggie Mirth Merry. Your actions and stories made Mad Maggie happy. You have advantage on all social checks with her.
Story Award Tormentor owner. Mad Maggie gift you with a Tormentor. Carries 4. Page 218. Has 1 day of gas. Do you have soul coins?
Rule Clarification. During war machine combat we will use the Lego war machines. A combination of theatre of mind and regular combat. PC manning crew positions can only crew and do reactions. This may change.
Story Award Jersey “Van Go” Chukka and Clonk thought you look a little run down. They taught you how to drive war machines. This proficiency is good for the book and modules. PS I owe you inspiration for playing your flaw.
Standard hazards. Every hour to travel. DC 10 +1 per hour travel Con save or gain level of exhaustion. So, three hours of travel would be three checks. No Beauty Sleep. If you not lawful evil, DC 10 wisdom save. On fail change a flaw, trait, or idea to an evil one. If it is not label evil choose one you think is evil. Are we there yet, roll on page 80.
I had a strong group of six. Jersey “Van Go!” Wizard rogue. Brandy Cleric. Arborn Ranger Warlock. Job Blackwing Wizard Fighter. Shade Bard. Zack Cleric.
Lulu led the way to Fort Knucklebones, it was nice and sunny, and a fun walk. For her, some of the pcs gain one or two levels of exhaustion due to the heat and hellish terrain. The Madcap Wazzik was the lead gate guard. He made of fun of the group until Zack offer a wineskin full of whiskey. Whiskey is a great weakness for Madcaps and Redcaps. Lulu remembers Chukka and Clonk two kenku. After few minutes of old home week, they take her and let the rest of the pc gang tag along to see Mad Maggie. While they are waiting they meet some interesting people. (Note I am rearranging the sequence on the meetings. Also, no maps and little description of the Fort Knucklebones is given. So, the map was either theatre of the mind, group feedback or winging it for the encounters.)
Chukka and Clonk are happy to see Lulu but need help in the war machine workshop. So, gears are stuck and they need strong backs and weak minds.
Pins and Needles two Imps who do Mad Maggie’s accounting were playing knock the cap off the redcap earlier this week. When Pins or Needles won. Okay. They knock the madcap Wazzik off the gate. Wazzik is tick off. Could you please assassinate Wazzik before he murders us?
Barnabas the Flameskull butler. Someone has drilled a hole in his lower jaw and slipped a hanger through it. On the hanger is an English Butler outfit. Barnabas is missing a tooth. Grubba was playing soft ball with a shot-put last week and hit Barnabas. This knock out his tooth. Grubba and his boys have been playing poker and using the tooth as stake. Could you get back.
Mickey the Dancing Flesh Golem wanders through the waiting room. He is limping and groaning. Zack discovers an old war wound and removers the devil bone. Oh, he made flesh golem happy. Mickey loved him. And squeeze him until some hit points came out.
The group decides to be nice and help out the rest of Mad Maggie’s crew.
Shade and Job Blackwing both decide separately to steal the tooth back from Grubba. Job turns invisible and steals into the barracks while the off-duty redcaps are playing poker. Shade opens the window and tries to mage hand the pouch off Grubba. Just as Job is about to lift the pouch, the mage hand grabs the pouch, which does not go unnoticed. Grubba and his gang go to curb stomp the bard. Shade sends his pet displacer beast to attack the barracks from the front, he will stay at the window. Job dives under the table and hopes not to get noticed. As the redcaps are curb stomping the displacer beast, and giving Shade boots to head; Job grabs the tooth pouch and dives through another open window.
Job, but I didn’t open the window. I didn’t check.”
DM, Shut up. The window is now open and you are brushing glass off you as you run away.
Grubba is distracted due to the window breaking which allows Shade to break contact but his kitty was booted to death. No chance of a reboot to get him back.
The group goes to help Chukka and Clonk with war machine maintenance. A gear is really stuck. It seems a bone devil has possessed the gear. The group breaks the gear off the machine with lots of elbow grease but as the gear rattles on the floor a bone devil leaves it and attacks the group. The kenku beat feet while the group handles this minor devil. The group wins. Lulu and Zack start talking shop with the two kenku gear heads. This leaves the rest of group to handle the last mission.
Shade tricks Wazzik to a drinking contest. They go to the only shade in the place. (One of the ideas from the players was needing dim light so I gave them the only shade in the fort. And I gave the ambush they wanted.) However, Wazzik does not trust the bard and brings four of his friends. Just as Wazzik about take a drink the ambush and curb stomping begins. Six dead Redcaps and one TKO later, the group is staggers back to shop to pick up Lulu and Zack. Zack has agreed to help the kenku with part hunt but it has to be put off to tomorrow because the party has been curbed stomped.
After a slightly unrestful sleep, they awaken alive. Shade did pick up two evil marks. And the group sets out to look for parts on Tormentor. Just as they are beginning to load the armour pieces and harpoon; Feonor and the Golden Doom road gang show up. The group tries to flee.
(Ok the DM and players were winging the war machine combat. I will review the rules this week.) But the low lights. All due to miscommunication on who was doing what and what a war machine can do. Yes, evil dm here, I as not allowing take backs.
Zack hopped on his broom of flying. To be left in the dust as the Tormentor has better movement. He tries to catch up and dives toward the back end of the Tormentor. Shade then throws into reverse and hits Zack with the rear bumper.
Ok. How Jersey got his extra name. This can only happen due to initiative is ran. Everyone but Shade the driver goes first. Then the mobile monsters. Shade next. Last the Golden Doom. Shade has nearly run over Zack and the group is either trying to get Zack into the vehicle or firing spells at the Golden Doom. Jersey being the coward he is jumps off the vehicle and dashes forward to get out of the way of any fire from the Doom patrol.
DM. “You are jumping off a moving vehicle running forward in front of war machine being driven by Shade who has just clipped Zack with the rear bumper. And then you are readying an action to jump back on as Zack passes you. Correct?”
Jersey, “Correct Acrobatics right.”
DM, “Okay. Make that a DC 15.”
Job Blackwing, “Don’t forget he needs an acrobatics check to dismount too. Remember last time.”
DM,” Oh! Last time. Right! Thanks for helping.’ I look at the Tormentor. Raking Scythes. Last time, the rear wheel ran over the bad guy for an instant kill. “Okay Acrobatics 10” Jersey rolls a two.
Jersey jump off the moving war machine right into blades on the wheels taking thirteen points of damage but not falling prone. He dashes forward waiting for Shade to move forward. (Jersey then rolls a one on the second acrobatics check.) Shade overs corrects running you down. You take another thirteen point of damage. And notice the machine is leaking oil and stuff as it drives over you. You rise to your feet. Screaming and waving your hands at the retreating machine. The break light come on. You look back just as the Demon Grinder’s chomper bites you for twenty-five points of damage. The ghast driving the Grinder is so amused at your fate, he slams on the breaks which tosses your dead body with one death fail onto the back of the tormentor. Your left ear is left in the chomper’s teeth. The whole Golden Doom crew is laughing so hard they lose control of the car and nearly wreck. The group sees them still laughing as they leave in a cloud of dust. (NOTE this broke a lot of game rules feel free to comment.)
You arrive back at Fort Knucklebone. Mad Maggie is so amused at your actions she laughs. And sets up the dream ritual. You survive the dream ritual. Lulu regains her second memory. The location to Zariel’s sword is Hruman’s Hill two hours away by war machine. IF YOU DO NOT GET LOST.
Mad Maggie gifts you with the newly repaired war machine called Picasso. 3 soul coins. And has Clonk silver a weapon of your choice.
DM NOTES. Take note of the npcs and how the interact with each other. The lack of maps, and descriptions make you wing most of this. This is chapter the dm needs to read head. Especially on war machines.

 

[jasper]

DDAL09-07 session

The Diabolical Dive

Day 13

PC Killed 1 Monster Killed 115 Villains Capture 9 Villains Escaped 0

Gain a level. 240 GP. 20 Downtime days

Magic Items Bowl of Commanding Water Elementals. Potion of Invisibility

NOTE SOUL COIN UPDATE. Soul Coins are considered consumable so they don’t duplicate. This correction will go into effect next session.

Story Award Thief of Infernal Knowledge

You recovered additional intelligence that could allow you to avoid the movements of devilish forces later in your adventures. This Story Award will affect the later Tier 4

adventures.

Story Award John C and Dexio Fireleaf Stain Upon your Soul.

I had a weak group of four Vydoc Fighter. John C Cleric Warlock. Dexio Fireleaf Beast master. Shade Bard.

The group is assign by Fai Chen to recover some battle plans at the bottom of the River Styx. But don’t worry, they wouldn’t get wet. They just need to persuade the shy drow Respen Shadowswimmer to get them inside. They approach Respen’s lair and the Imp Murphy give them lip. They finally convince Murphy to let them speak with Respen.

Respen is not happy to see people but agree to talk to the adventures. After presenting their case, Respen will get them to underwater tower but they need to recover a keystone from his former friend Viltharn. The keystone will allow the group to teleport back to Respen’s tower directly. The group agrees. (For various reasons this opening did not go well.)

The water elemental takes the group down to the first landing point. The River Styx is held back by a magical force. The landing is dry. A hallway to the south leads to darkness and a stairway to the east leads to darkness. They take the east route.

After a few seconds of darkness, they enter a huge chamber. A mural of Lolth is on the south side. A barbed devil and imp demand to know why the group is here and why should they be killed.

Dexio, “I have two soul coins to trade for information and our lives. “

John C, “And I have one soul coin to trade for the pass word for safe passage.”

(With that the group breaks the module.)

Barry Barbed Devil, “Boss go elsewhere. Wait a second while the boss disappears. Okay. See that huge geode below. That where the plans are. Good luck. Oh Viltharn is in that far tower there. And the password is. (The dm didn’t think of one.) “

The group makes tracks to Viltharn’s tower. Viltharn is not themselves. They have been curse to being a chain devil. At mention of their former friend they attack. Doing some damage. After killing Viltharn, they find some letters written to Respen and the keystone.

Leaving the tower, the group discover some male drow slaves who are guarding the walkway. Shade frees them. The drow mention the barbed devil below has a golden amulet and don’t let it touch it. Also good luck in crossing the fissure.

Dexio waits until the barbed devil is behind the geode and flies people across. A few seconds later the barbed devil with his ten slaves comes from around the geode. The devil whistles for back up and starts throwing balls of fire. Two spined devils leave the battlements and start to charge the group. Just as they about to kill the barbed devil, it touches the amulet and drains the all the life out the drow slaves. The party finally kill the devils and enter the geode.

Only to be stopped by the commander a bone devil and one bearded devil. During the fight John C is killed. Since he has sold his soul to Mahadi, he needs a true resurrection or wish spell to come back. The group kills the commander and his backup. The drow downloads the plans into Shade’s memories.

 

[jasper]

Working on next update. Having to bite my tongue. Friday we had fun lot cross talk (groan) and people taking the cross talk up a level. But they were not totally listening which cause trouble. OR I would go to describe a scene and I would get "Well actually, by the rules that would no happen because..." If I had a copy of that meme I would staple it to at least one person forehead.

 

[jasper]

Descent into Avernus Session 8
Chapter 3 Part 2
Can the Dm have some input.
Or I don’t need not stinking Road.
Day 16
PC Killed 2 Monsters Killed 152 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escape 5
I sold and actually soul coin for $2. Well not me. I broker a deal between two players. I been taping the names of people who died on to the back of poker chips. And using poker chips as soul coins. One player pet/friend/whatever called “little Timmy” died. The player running John C collected for a meal a few weeks ago. Little Timmy player want the soul coin with Little Timmy on it. So, a deal was done. Pics later. Oh the $2 was spend on soft drinks.
Advancement If you are below 7 gain to 7 240 gp per level and 20 downtime days per level. If you did not level since last Friday and played in Friday’s game level. Else 4 hours game time and 60 gp.
War Machine reward Demon Grinder 0 gas. Your Tormentor has 2 days of gas left. I will bring a copy of Appendix B for everyone next week.
Magic Item Infernal Tack Legendary Page 224, 3 soul coins (these don’t dup) and circlet of blasting.
Story Award Tree of Woe anyone who damaged Mr. H.
I had a strong group of seven. Job Blackwing Wizard 5 Fighter 2. Brandy Cleric 7. Shroudie Rogue 4 Wizard 5. Jersey Wizard 6 Rogue 1. Shade Bard 8. Surahana Paladin 5 rogue 4. Mara Hadi Sorcerer 6.
Note there was lot in game chat and riffing off of each other. This was mostly enjoyable but sometimes the players were not listening to me. This cause some problems.
The group of seven leave Mad Maggie’s fort in a small ford Tormentor. (Don’t ask how 7 people fit into a 4-person car.) Just as the radio is picking up some hellion’s tunes, Bebop and his gang of wereboars attack in their war machine. The group responses by killing the driver, killing the driver, hold person the driver and finally causing a mishap. The driver who held hit the wrong button which cause the grinder to flip end over end nearly taking out their machine but only knocking Mara Hadi off the roof rack. The group flips the Grinder back on the wheels and follow Lulu’s directions to Haruman’s Hill.
As they get closer and closer to the hill, they enter a strange forest, with strange fruit hanging off the dead branches. The dead tormented are in the trees. They are not happy. The trees are creepy. The group comes to hill and stop because the forest is too thick to go any farther on the vehicles.
Some the party get down. Job asks Lulu to loot the bodies. (Um wrong.) Lulu is asked to check out the people on the trees have information All the party are cracking jokes on the poor souls who are being hug out to dry. (So many bad jokes here. And now one was stopping. And getting me off track.) Just as the party hears the buzzing of an angry wasp, Shroudie makes fun of the person on big tree at the top. Jander Sunstar who had been tormented for 99 years. 9 Months. 9 days. 9 Hours. 9 Minutes. 9 seconds. Speaks. Think Samuel Jackson and the Big Mac scene.
Jander, “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS! “She leaps off the tree and charges toward Shroudie. “I AM GOING TO SLAP YOU SO HARD AND SO FAR, DOWN IN HELL. YOU WILL HAVE TO LOOK UP TO AMOSDUES LEVEL.” Shroudie now has brown pants. Jersey casts fog cloud hiding himself in the Grinder driver seat and everything forward. A Hellwasp swoops in and grabs Lulu. Job takes off after Lulu. Shade flanks right. Mara Hadi flanks right.
(You getting the picture. Everyone is scattering. A huge fog cloud is in the center of the map. Initiative was rolled. The Hellwasp goes first, my monster going first has not happen in a while. The other monsters will go in the middle.)
The Hellwasp flees toward it nest. In the fog cloud, Jander draws back to swing on Shroudie.
(Correction Muse. See told you have read the book. More. See you needed to read page 92. How are you going to correct this?)
Just as the blow is about take Shroudie’s head off. Jander collapses into dust. As you look down on the ground, the ground erupts. Out comes MR. HATE. He is wearing a helm with a red H for hate on it. He has Hate tattooed on his fingers. He is riding an actual nightmare. With him is a Hellwasp which takes off flying toward Lulu.
(Correction muse but no one would be able to see. Click bang. Bang. Bang.)
(DM needs more muses.)
Shroudie flees toward where the war machines are. Shade readies a smart aleck comment. Shroudie bursts from the fog cloud and just gets the tips of his fingers on the back bed of tormentor bed and pulls himself up. Safe. Until MR. HATE comes out the cloud. Shade makes a cutting remark toward MR. HATE. So, MR. HATE lances this boil thrice. (Okay the monster smart, he going after the lonely.) Job dashes up the hill and throws spells at the Hellwasp. Mara Hadi casts a spell at MR. HATE and quick hides in the fog cloud.
MR. HATE shakes the mostly dead body of Shade off his lance. He spies Shroudie. “YOU! DIED” He charges. Shroudie leaps a top of Brandy using her as spring board, tumbles between the vehicles, does a mighty jump to the tormentor and starts looking for the keys.
MR. HATE charges up on the Grinder damaging Brandy. Just as he gets ready to lance Shroudie. Shroudie puts the pedal to the metal and goes off roading into the hell forest. Knocking down trees. Running over poor souls. He is going to top of the hill and he only stopping for Lulu. Someone had healing word Shade and Shade had ran into the fog for cover.
(Well actually. I had not fully drawn the forest out. After two rounds I noticed the Tormentor was at the top of hill where should not had been able to go but was there away. So, I just allowed it.)
As MR. HATE hacks up a lung from Shroudie’s dust, he looks around and only sees Brandy. ALL ALONE. (Not really but either everyone was too far to attack, or in the fog cloud.) He rides her down, tossing her corpse across his saddle. He starts to dash to east when from the north he hears.
Lulu, ‘DAMMIT JOB LET GO OF MY TAIL. Oops. I am goody goody. I am not supposed to cuss.” Job loses the tug of war over Lulu and the Hellwasp. MR. HATE turns north to kill more people. While he is in the fog cloud, he tosses Brandy’s body into tree with her name on it. On the tree is says “Brandy. Crimes. Assaulting an Officer.” Coming out the fog cloud he is ambushed by Surahana and Job.
Now free from being a target; Jersey and Mara Hadi who had been fighting over the wheel throw the Grinder into reserve and floor it. Jersey lifts his fog cloud. MR. HATE smiles as the Grinder runs out of gas. Then frowns as Surahana big smite strikes him down. The nightmare flees. (Or the dm called time your choice.)
Group vote for where to pick up next. You can choose Path A or Choice 1. Yes, I not giving the group a clue. Evil DM OUT.